


traveled space for much too long

by zandalorian



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Named Shepard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 11:51:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12232284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zandalorian/pseuds/zandalorian
Summary: In which the galaxy's human Spectres can't sleep and Bejewelled is eternal.





	traveled space for much too long

**Author's Note:**

> I found this in my document of short fic, I think it was from something submitted as a tumblr prompt. I really love my Shepard and his space boyfriend though, so here world, have this fluff. 
> 
> Title taken from Yellowcard's 'Space Travel'

As a general rule, 3 AM Earth standard time on the Normandy was quiet. It was never perfectly silent, a space ship needed to be crewed at all times, but more people tended to be asleep than awake at 3 AM. The majority of humans, anyway, and some of the aliens who tried to synch their biorhythms as close to their human comrades as possible. 

As another general rule, Kaidan Alenko was not one of the people asleep at 3 AM. 

He felt being in a hospital and being unconscious a good deal of the time fulfilled a lot of his sleeping quota for the next few months. Besides, enough had happened since the Reapers attacked that sleeping was just hard. And so, he’d taken to spending the long hours of the early morning - or was it late night? Kaidan could never decide - on the Starboard Observation Deck. This particular 3 AM he was curled up on one of the couches, filling the room with quiet pings from his omni-tool. He’d given up reading reports over an hour ago, the endless numbers of the dead, dying, and people he couldn’t help becoming too much. Too many of those statistics led to migraine territory. The harsh, unnatural lighting of the Normandy already had him squinting in discomfort, and Kaidan didn’t feel like pushing his luck. He didn’t need to know those numbers right now - just needed to focus on keeping them from climbing. 

Kaidan sighed audibly, and furiously blinked for a moment. Not being able to sleep didn’t mean his body didn’t want it. He froze for a moment at the sound of a mechanical hiss, quickly running through the list of crew members likely to be awake. 

‘Kaidan.’ 

Kaidan released the breath he was holding, a small smile breaking out on his face. 

‘Shepard. Fancy seeing you here.’ 

Shepard chuckled.

‘You haven’t even seen me yet.’ 

Kaidan shrugged and turned, throwing his right arm over the back of the couch, to face his commander. 

‘Hey.’

‘Hey,’ Shepard said, coming to stand closer to Kaidan’s couch. ‘I interrupting anything?’

‘Well,’ Kaidan considered, looking at his quietly flashing omni-tool. ‘I seem to have lost this level, but that happened before you came in here.’

‘Level?’ Shepard asked, tilting his head in a question. ‘You playing a game?’

Kaidan nodded ‘Yep,’ and waved Shepard over to sit next to him. ‘Here, sit, I’ll show you.’ Shepard nodded, and sat down on the edge of the couch, sliding over towards Kaidan.

‘So, what’s this game that’s captured Major Alenko’s attention?’

Kaidan chuckled and restarted a new level.

‘It’s something the kids in the biotics unit showed me. Not overly complex, you just try to match up the colors like this, see? And that clears the field.’ Kaidan explained, tapping his omni-tool screen a few times. ‘You’re welcome to give it a try.’ Shepard answered by scooting closer to Kaidan and starting to hesitantly tap the screen. 

In no time the room was filled with the soft pings that accompanied a successfully cleared set of tiles. Kaidan started watching Shepard instead of the omni-tool screen, as the other man clearly needed no guidance when it came to the game, if the frequency of the pings were any indication. So instead of looking for patterns of colors, he watched Shepard biting his lower lip in concentration. Shepard has had the habit as long as Kaidan could remember knowing the man; He’s pretty sure he even saw Shepard do it on Eden Prime, back in the beginning. Before the rest of it started. Before the universe rested on Shepard’s shoulders.

Back when Shepard was being given his first ship and Kaidan was just an LT. Look at us now, he thought, looking at his commanding officer slash fellow human Spectre slash boyfriend. The last two were new. Especially the last one. Boyfriend. If it were physically possible, Kaidan was pretty sure his heart would be singing every time he even thought the word. Hell, he’d say that to Shepard if he weren’t so unsure of where the boundaries of this new relationship were. Probably kiss him too, but Kaiden settled for leaning into Shepard’s side, careful to keep his arm with the omni-tool steady. Shepard’s eyes flickered from the omni-tool for a moment, a smile spreading across his face. Shepard shifted, sliding his left arm around Kaidan and pulling him closer. 

Ok, cuddling was good, he could work with that.

‘Enjoying the game?’ he asked, eventually. 

‘It is surprisingly compelling.’ Shepard responded.

‘Yeah, I’ve found that too. Good for filling long hours of space travel.’

‘Especially late at night when you can’t sleep?’

‘Especially then,’ Kaiden admitted, turning to rest his chin on Shepard’s shoulder. ‘I can send you the file, if you like. Give you something to do in your downtime.’

‘What downtime?’ Shepard muttered, a hint of bitterness in his voice. His eyes refused to leave the game. 

‘Downtime like this.’ Kaiden gave Shepard a look. ‘Downtime. You know what it is.’

Shepard shrugged.

‘I don’t get it often, is all.’ 

‘And I aim to change that,’ Kaidan declared, pulling Shepard closer. ‘That’s my job as your boyfriend.’ Shepard nodded vaguely, focused back on the game. 

‘Shepard.’ Kaidan said, nudging him in his side. ‘Orion?’

Shepard looked up, blinking. The omni-tool let out a mildly jarring buzz. Out of time, the screen declared. 

‘Yes?’

‘Downtime. More of it. You.’

‘Right.’ Shepard said, reaching out to start the level over. ‘Downtime.’ Kaidan pulled his left arm, and the omni-tool along with it, out of his boyfriend’s reach. Shepard whined and reached after it, pawing vaguely at the air where it had been. 

‘You should sleep, you know.’ Kaidan said. Shepard raised an eyebrow.

‘So should you.’ 

Kaidan shrugged.

‘I’m not in charge of a ship, now am I? Sleep.’

‘Only if you come with me.’ Shepard said, words nearly tripping over each other. Kaidan stared at him.

‘All right,’ he said finally. ‘I can work with that.’


End file.
